After a prolonged drought period in the early 2000s, the Canadian prairie experienced a remarkably
wet year in 2010. Five stations near the edge of the Saskatchewan boreal forest recorded historically
high cumulative precipitation (from April to September). The exceptional wet year causes the public
concerns on flood controls and land use management in the region. Using the Canadian National
Climate Data Achieve, characteristics of six-month cumulative precipitation sums over
Saskatchewan prairie are investigated by the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) Theory. Based on
the unconstrained GEV distribution, the 2010 event is outside the estimated 95% confidence
intervals for the five Canadian prairie stations. On the contrary, the exceptional high 2010 cumulative
perception sums for the five stations are still bounded by the estimated confidence bounds if the
GEV distribution is constrained to the Gumbel distribution (i.e. setting the shape factor of the GEV
distribution to be zero). These results demonstrate that the classical extreme analysis is useful for
planning unprecedented extreme events in the Canadian Prairie, if the GEV distribution is
constrained to the Gumbel distribution with the estimated uncertainty bounds based on the order
statistics.

Systematic measurements of sediment transport rates and water discharge were conducted in the
Nestos River (Greece), at a place located between the outlet of Nestos River basin and the river
delta. This basin area is about 838 km2 and lies downstream of the Platanovrysi Dam. Separate
measurements of bed load transport and suspended load transport were performed at certain cross
sections of the Nestos River.
In this study, relationships between sediment transport rates and stream discharge for the Nestos
River are presented. A nonlinear regression curve (4th degree polynomial curve; r2 equals 0.62)
between bed load transport rates and stream discharge, on the basis of 63 measurements, was
developed. In addition, a nonlinear regression curve (5th degree polynomial curve; r2 equals 0.95)
between suspended load transport rates and stream discharge, on the basis of 65 measurements,
was developed.
The relatively high r2 values indicate that both bed load transport rates and, especially, suspended
load transport rates can be predicted as a function of the stream discharge in the Nestos River.
However, the reliability of the regression equations would have been higher if more measured data
were available.

The occurrence of trihalomethanes (THMs) was studied in the drinking water samples from urban
water supply network of Karachi city that served more than 18 million people. Drinking water
samples were collected from 58 locations in summer (May-August) and winter (November-February)
seasons. The major constituent of THMs detected was chloroform in winter (92.34%) and summer
(93.07%), while the other THMs determined at lower concentrations. Summer and winter
concentrations of total THMs at places exceed the levels regulated by UEPA (80 μg l-1) and WHO
(100 μg l-1). GIS linked temporal variability in two seasons showed significantly higher median
concentration (2.5%-23.06%) of THMs compared to winter.

The main objective of this study was to characterize the organic matter present in raw water and
along the treatment process, as well as its seasonal variation. A natural organic matter fractionation
approach has been applied to Lever water treatment plant located in Douro River, in Oporto
(Portugal).
The process used was based on the sorption of dissolved organic matter in different types of ion
exchange resins, DAX-8, DAX-4 and IRA-958, allowing its separation into four fractions: very
hydrophobic acids (VHA), slightly hydrophobic acids (SHA), charged hydrophilic (CHA) and
hydrophilic neutral (NEU). The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) determination was used to quantify
dissolved organic matter. Samples were collected monthly, during approximately one year, from raw
water captured at the surface and under the bed of the river, and after each step of the treatment:
pre-filtration in sand/anthracite filters, ozonation, coagulation/flocculation, counter current dissolved
air flotation and filtration (CoCoDAFF) and chlorination.
The NEU fraction showed a seasonal variation, with maximum values in autumn for the sampling
points corresponding to raw water captured at the surface and under the bed of the river. It was
usually the predominating fraction and did not show a significant decrease throughout the treatment.
Nevertheless their low concentration, the same occurred for the CHA and VHA fractions. There was
an overall decrease in the SHA fraction throughout the water treatment (especially after CoCoDAFF
and ozonation) as well as in the DOC.
The TSUVA254 values obtained for raw water generally varied between 2.0 and 4.0 L mgC-1 m-1 and
between 0.75 and 1.78 L mgC-1 m-1 for treated water. It was observed a decrease of TSUVA values
along the treatment, especially after ozonation.
These results may contribute to a further optimization in the process of treating water for human
consumption.

The potential regional future changes in seasonal (winter and summer) temperature and
precipitation are assessed for the greater area of Greece over the 21st century, under A2, A1B and
B2 future emission scenarios of IPCC. Totally twenty-two simulations from various regional climate
models (RCMs) were assessed; fourteen of them with a spatial grid resolution of 50km for the period
2071-2100 under A2 (9 simulations) and B2 (5 simulations) scenarios and eight of them with an
even finer resolution of 25km under A1B scenario for both 2021-2050 and 2071-2100 time periods.
The future changes in temperature and precipitation were calculated with respect to the control
period (1961-1990). All the models estimated warmer and dryer conditions over the study area. The
warming is more intense during the summer months, with the changes being larger in the continental
than in the marine area of Greece. In terms of precipitation, the simulations of the RCMs estimate a
decrease up to -60% (A2 scenario). Finally it is shown that the changes in the atmospheric
circulation over Europe play a key role in the changes of the future precipitation and temperature
characteristics over the domain of study in a consistent way for the different emission scenarios.

The hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater in the island of Lesvos, Greece, were studied
based on chemical analyses of groundwater samples collected from 30 locations covering all the
island’s major aquifers hosted in different lithological formations. The Plagioclase dissolution was
found to be responsible for the observed high concentrations of Na and Ca in the majority of volcanic
aquifers. Ultrabasic rocks enrich groundwater with magnesium while intense hydrothermal activity
and extensive alteration zones, which exist locally as a result of a recent volcanic activity, are
associated with the existence of sulphate type groundwater and acidic pH in some areas. Seawater
intrusion was found to be associated with high Cl- concentrations in three sampling locations. Based
on sodium adsorption ratio, percent sodium, and the US salinity diagrams, the vast majority of
groundwater samples were evaluated as suitable for irrigation purposes.

Literature reports have indicated that Particulate Matter (PM) concentrations in the atmosphere over
the major urban centres of Greece are high compared to other European cities of the same size. The
great majority of these reports are based on measurements that have been conducted over a limited
amount of time. This study provides an overview of the temporal variation that shows the trends of
PM10 concentrations in the two major urban centres of Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki) during the
last decade (i.e., from 2001 to 2010). Annual average PM10 concentrations at the urban monitoring
stations in Athens range from 32.3 to 62.5 μg m-3, and at the suburban stations from 21.5 to 62.9 μg
m-3. In Thessaloniki the respective values range from 41.7 to 70.8 μg m-3 for the urban stations, and
from 23.4 to 51.5 μg m-3 for the suburban. The highest and the lowest monthly average PM10
concentrations at the urban stations in Athens are observed during the autumn/winter and the
summer months, respectively. For the suburban stations the highest values are observed during the
spring and the lowest during the winter. In Thessaloniki, autumn exhibits the highest and summer the
lowest PM10 values both for the urban and the suburban stations.

A regional model was developed in the present study for the determination of the flow duration curve
at ungaged catchments, in western and northwestern Greece, which is a hydrologically homogenous
region. A flow duration curve indicates the water availability at a site and is important for the
estimation of the hydropower potential. A flow duration curve was generated for each of seven
available stations at different rivers and then the parameters of the flow duration curves were
correlated with geomorphological and climatic characteristics of the drainage basins for the
derivation of the equations of the regional model. The model was verified using three hold out
stations, in which the error ranged from 0.3 to 1.1%.

Improving the treatment efficiency of a primary wastewater treatment plant(WWTP),in Alexandria,
Egypt,was studied.In order to improve the treatment efficiency of the plant, different improving
scenarios were proposed and evaluated. The improvement scenarios are: scenario 1,use of
engineered wetland instead of the current treatment system, scenario 2, use of the engineered
wetland as a secondary treatment after the existing treatment system and scenario 3,replace the
existing treatment system with a secondary WWTP. The scope of this study is to environmentally
assess the existing primary WWTP, in addition to assess the possibility of using the engineered
wetland for improving the primary WWTP. To evaluate the performance of each treatment system,
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied.

Based on the results, the main improvement achieved in all the scenarios is in the category of
eutrophication and acidification, as the three scenarios have higher removal efficiency for the
nutrients than the current system. Unlike the total reduction in the environmental impact, scenario 3
gave the highest reduction in the category of eutrophication and acidification (25%) followed by
scenario 2 (24%) and the lowest reduction achieved by scenario 1 (13%). The analysis revealed that
the use of combined system from natural and traditional systems (scenario 2) is the best scenario.
However, scenario3 achieved a very close result.

The objective of the study was to determine the effect of CaCN2 on pathogenic E. coli as an
antimicrobial agent and its impact on composting progress as an amendment in dairy cow manure
based mixtures composted at laboratory scale. The changes in physical parameters, chemical
parameters and biological parameters during 63 days composting were evaluated. The results of the
analysis revealed that additions of 2% and 3% CaCN2 into the compostable substrate significantly
improved the quality of the composting products. And the test for inactivation of E. coli showed that
additions of 2% and 3% CaCN2 significantly shortened the time to inactivate E. coli during
composting, indicating that the composting could quickly reach the sanitary standard with the
addition of CaCN2.